I'm not that convinced this is her, but Lorraine Chance does not look like an impossible match to me. She went missing from California in January of 1948 after leaving her daughter with a babysitter, she said she would be back that evening but never picked the daughter up. She had brown hair, was white, and was between 4 ft 11 in and 5 ft 5 in - this would make her fit this Jane Doe's description. In July 1949 she would be 27, and a 27-year old can be mistaken for a 30-year old. She could've also gotten the leg injury during this year and a half gap.
If she chose to leave, it's not unreasonable to think she might have gone towards the east coast; according to her marriage license she was born in Boston and lived for some time in New York, so she has some ties there. In fact, her husband - who passed away after an accident a couple of months before she disappeared - died in
Norfolk! I did a quick search to see if I could find stronger ties to Virginia - specifically I tried to find if a parent or sibling lived there, but I had a hard time finding pre-marriage info about her, including family info.
While I still think this Jane Doe is a woman who might never have been reported missing, I still see enough potential in Lorraine to look deeper into it. Since I'm not american I can't submit stuff on NamUs, so if someone agrees that this is worth submitting I would
really really really appreciate if you do that!
Below I've attached pictures of Lorraine Chance's marriage license and her husband's death certificate.
Lorraine's NamUs:
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
